Posts on “ Lesson Plan ”

BrainPOP is thrilled to introduce a new category of free English Language Arts (ELA) games! When you visit the main GameUp page, you’ll now see an “English Games” button which takes you to our growing collection of online games that target a wide range of literacy skills. We’re also excited to announce the addition of Classroom, Inc.’s The Sports Network 2 (TSN-2) to our English GameUp offerings. The result of a 2011 Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC), TSN-2 can easily be adapted for use with students in grades 5-9, but is designed to assess students’ proficiency in key grade 8 Common Core State Standards in Reading Informational Text. We love the way TSN-2 uses challenging tasks within a virtual workplace to address each of its target standards multiple times. Last spring, Classroom, Inc. piloted TSN-2 in eight schools in NYC and Chicago. Analysis of student data gathered through Classroom Inc’s Teacher Dashboard showed strong correlations between students’ scores on the TSN-2 embedded assessments and MAP reading scores—compelling evidence that TSN-2 is a valid predictor of student performance on standardized grade level reading tests. Pilot teachers were enthusiastic about how TSN-2 provides effective CCSS practice and assessment, and students were eager… Read the Rest»

Tomorrow is March 14th, also know as Pi day!  Every year many teachers observe the coincidence that our calendar notation aligns with the most famous ratio –  the circumference of a circle to its diameter!  Thinking about ways to incorporate Pi day into your classroom? You can start by providing a overview with the BrainPOP Pi Movie , continue by checking out BrainPOP Educators Superfaux2′s custom mixer quiz on Pi, or create your own. Check out our “lesson ideas” page for some ideas about creating a Pi Day festival from Educator Toni Sexton.    Have a piphilologist  contest, to see which student can memorize the longest stretch of numbers!  Have additional ideas? Share them below. Happy Pi Day!

Join the POParrazi We are excited to be in Austin, Texas, this week for the 2013 TCEA Conference.  If you’re at the conference, stop by Booth # 1717 to take your picture with Moby and participate in our #mobyandme POParrazi photo collection!  While you’re there, find out about the latest developments at BrainPOP, including the mixer, new Educators pages ,and a special first glimpse of new teacher and student accounts!   BrainPOP is also featured in the conference program – our own Arturo Guajardo will present BrainPOP Basics and Beyond Thursday, FEB. 7th from 12:30 – 1:20pm in the Hilton ROOM 406. See you there!  

Just this week, we’ve quietly rolled out a new group of support pages on BrainPOP Educators.  We have created game specific  pages to help support your implementation of GameUp games in class! Every GameUp page has a lesson ideas button. Click the button to find lesson plans, graphic organizers, videos and implementation strategies all geared toward the specific game. With unique pages for each of the almost 60 games on GameUp, you’ll find the most useful implementation content to help you begin  incorporating game based learning into your teaching! Over the last year, our goal has been to make a more friendly BrainPOP Educators experience, and reduce the amount of searching you need to do to find the resource that you want.   We hope you find these new pages useful!  We’re always eager for feedback so please leave your ideas or suggestions in the comments section below.  

Every January, the big players in the consumer electronics industry gather in Las Vegas to share the newest innovations and developments. From collossal TVs to networked “smart” home appliances this yearly event exhibits products that were once dreams of science fiction. For the past four years, Living in Digital Times and Children’s Technology Review have use the Consumer Electronics Show as the place to present the KAPi Kids at Play Awards, honoring the best of the best in children’s technology. This year’s KAPi Award winners were selected from a pool of over 700 apps, video games, toys and other commercial digital products designed for children, as well as individuals who have make their mark in the world of children’s tech. BrainPOP is thrilled that GameUp was selected to receive the award for Best Educational Technology! We’ve put a lot of effort into curating GameUp, to be the best digital learning game network, so we believe the recognition is well earned (and we hope you do too!) We’re even more thrilled to be included in the company of so many other terrific digital learning products such as LittleBits, Kinect Sesame Street, Kindle Fire HD Freetime, MakerFaire and Toca Boca. Thanks again… Read the Rest»

A new lesson ideas resource has been added to BrainPOP Educators! In it, you’ll find five unique ways that BrainPOP can be used to help students learn about holidays all year long. These ideas go beyond simple celebration tips: they challenge students to think critically about what people around the world celebrate and why. In this lesson ideas page, you’ll find ideas for having students generate and answer their own FYI questions related to a particular holiday, find out how you can empower students to research and debunk holiday myths, and learn tips for talking about stereotypes or common misunderstandings surrounding a holiday or its culture of origin. You’ll also discover ideas for year-long holiday journals that students can use to reflect on essential questions related to celebrations. Finally, you’ll access ideas for helping students compare and contrast holidays from various seasons and explore their connection to seasonal occurrences, and explore how various cultures express their beliefs and way of thinking through holiday celebrations. We hope these are teaching resources you’ll be able to use to enhance students’ English Language Arts (ELA) and social studies instruction all throughout the year as various holidays and seasonal celebrations arise. Please feel free… Read the Rest»

Searching for some last minute lesson plans to help students understand Thanksgiving?  Look no further than BrainPOP Educators Thanksgiving lesson plan and teaching tools page for some useful teaching tips and tricks.  Your might also consider directing your students to American Indian Spotlight page for additional context about the holiday, especially the complicated and often misunderstood connections between American Indians and European Colonists. As we take a short break for the November holiday, we reflect on how thankful we are that you, our BrainPOP educators,  contribute to our robust teacher community.  See you after the break!

Have you checked out BrainPOP ESL lately? If so, you may have noticed our new content: Level 3, Unit 4! We are excited to announce the launch of this new unit, which brings BrainPOP ESL up to 80 specific lessons! In addition to exploring higher level grammatical concepts, the movies are also increasingly content-driven – a development that can help all students. Take, for example, “A High Probability” (Level 3, Unit 4, Lesson 3). This BrainPOP ESL topic page focuses on infinitive verbs, but also explains the mathematical concept of probability. Learners essentially get two lessons in one. Beyond the new content, BrainPOP ESL has new features too. “Words to Know,” the all-important word introduction feature accompanying each lesson, now includes “Word Connections.” “Word Connections” explains various verb forms in the classic visual, clear style you’ve come to expect from BrainPOP. Powerful new reading and writing extension activities highlight specific forms of written expression. Within “A High Probability,” the “Read It” activity invites students to explore a persuasive essay, with thoughtful multiple choice comprehension questions that engage readers. The “Write It” section delves further into the art of persuasion by prompting students to write an advertisement within the structure of… Read the Rest»

Guest Blogger and BrainPOP Educator Kara Wilkins is chair of the Social Studies Department at Hudson Memorial School in Hudson, New Hampshire. My name is Kara Wilkins. I have been teaching at Hudson Memorial Middle School , in Hudson, New Hampshire for fifteen years. I have spent a majority of that time as an eighth grade social studies teacher. For the last three years I have had the pleasure of chairing the Social Studies department as well. Our school purchased a full BrainPOP membership for teachers and students about five years ago and we have never looked back. I have incorporated BrainPOP into every facet of my teaching, from previewing a topic, reviewing a topic and my favorite, at home extension of topics being learned in the classroom. I am also constantly looking for meaningful ways to integrate technology into my classes to increase student engagement so when BrainPOP came out with The Mixer I knew this was going to become an integral part of my classroom routine. Over the years I have purchased various “quiz making” Web 2.0 Tools but I knew that BrainPOP’s would be great because my kids already knew the format, loved Tim and Moby and… Read the Rest»

GameUp is buzzing with its newest game, Lord of the Flies!  Developed by Nobelprize.org, this game guides students in exploring the symbolism and themes of William Golding’s novel.  The objective of the game is to challenge the reader’s memory through playing the game and introduce some basic analytical aspects of the book.  The game presents students with one possible interpretation of Golding’s book, but they will create their own interpretations of the book by analyzing various elements. Perfect for an author study or English Literature unit, we’ve created a lesson plan to guide you in integrating the use of this game into your curriculum.  Utilizing BrainPOP resources such as our Lord of the Flies movie, our lesson plan includes some excellent tips for preparation and extension activities so you can get the most out of this interactive game.